U.S. Economy Adds 211K Jobs in April, Easily Beating Expectations

The Labor Department said the U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to a 10-year low at 4.4%, easily beating the median forecast. Economists were expecting around 185,000 jobs to be created last month after a revised 79,000 in March.

But instead the jobs report marks the third 200,000 plus reading so far this year.

The labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, changed little in April and has shown little movement over the past year. The employment-population ratio, at 60.2 percent, was also little changed over the month but was up by 0.5 percentage point since December.

In April, 1.5 million persons were still marginally attached to the labor force, but that’s down 181,000 from a year earlier. Among those, there were 455,000 discouraged workers, down by 113,000 from a year earlier.

The April jobs report is welcome news to working Americans and President Donald J. Trump, who just wrapped up his first 100 days in office. Working Americans overwhelmingly voted for the New York businessman with the belief he could get the economy firing on all four cylinders again.

Despite the weakness in the previous report, it is true that President Trump saw the strongest job creation in his first 100 days than his prior three predecessors.

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised up from +219,000 to +232,000. But it’s not just the number, as we’ve seen during the period of recovery following the Great Recession, but the jobs that make up the number.

Employment in mining rose by 9,000 in April after struggling hitting a recent low in October 2016. Now, mining has added 44,000 jobs. While construction (+6,877) and manufacturing (12,396) showed slower growth than in the previous three months, the higher-paying sectors are trending higher after years of seeing little gains to frequent losses.

Wages, average hourly earnings, rose a decent 0.3% in the month, but fell 1 tenth to a very soft 2.5% for the previous 12 months.